Various electrically powered vibrating mechanisms for personal use have been devised and patented in the prior art for muscle massage and personal physical comfort and the like. All are generally characterized by an off-center vibratory motor which is in some manner affixed to an arm or surface which is adapted to receive the vibratory force and which thereafter imparts such force to the person of the user. More particularly, there is commonly known the type of personal vibrating mechanism which is characterized by a surface consisting of a cantilever arm extending from the vibratory motor, which arm commonly is adapted to be inserted beneath the seat of a chair, the mattress of a bed, the back of a lounge chair or the like. These types of devices generally are not used in direct contact with the person of the user but are more generally inserted under the surface of an object, such a a pillow which is in contact with the person of the user. As a consequence, the vibratory force produced by the mechanism is substantially absorbed by the pillow or cushion, or at least is drastically minimized and as a consequence the overall soothing effect which the device is capable of producing is not imparted to the user. A number of factors result in this relatively inefficient utilization of the vibratory amplitude imparted to the arm. One of these is merely the thickness which characterizes the vibrating arm of prior art devices. The thickness of the arm is relatively nominal and the limited vibration amplitude produces little, if any, discernable feeling when the vibratory force is transmitted through a pillow to the person of the user. Also, the limited vibratory amplitude itself is nominal, and as a consequence, independently of the thickness of the arm, there is imparted a relatively small vibratory amplitude through a pillow or cushion to the body of the user.
The improved vibrating apparatus of the invention comprises a device wherein a pair of enlongate arms, each of predetermined cooperating configuration, are fixed in cantilevered manner to an off-center vibrating motor. The arms are connected at their remote end by a clamp, but are disposed in respective planes, vertically removed from one another and wherein the most central part of each cantilever arm diverges from the most central part of the cooperating cantilever arm and wherein the two (2) arms converge towards one another at their ends. The overall configuration of the arms are calculated such that the vibratory force induced to each arm at its attached end produces an outward flexing motion in the corresponding divergent sections of each arm so as to thereby maintain the arms a maximum distance apart at their divergent section and thus avoid absorption of the vibrating amplitude into a cushion or pillow overlying the device. A markedly enhanced vibrating effect is thus felt by the person of the user. Applicant has found that a vibrating mechanism designed in accordance with the principles set forth hereafter produce significantly greater vibrating motion that any equivalent vibrator apparatus of the same motor and arm size.
These and other features and advantages of the invention will become abundantly clear upon reading of the following detailed description, claims and drawings wherein like numerals denote like parts in the several views and wherein: